Hi.. We had often checked out MK products when deciding on which motorised pano head to buy.. I would have loved to have played with your product since there seems to be some great features, and being made in Germany is always a good selling point since most German stuff is well made.. However, we feel we made the right decision in buying the VR Drive II in the end for our needs.

Its always going to be hard decision to make in which motorised pano head to buy since its such an expensive outlay... We would be interested in hearing how others find using your motorised head in comparison to the VR Drive II stacks up.

I guess one to the most important issues for us has been the the excellent after sales support since we be bought the VR Drive II. We have come to realise that if we have an issue, the support we receive is outstanding... It was also the features the VR Drive II offered. We have the HDR software and we are busting to try it out.. But our D800 is still on back order:((

Just a point I would like to mention, due to the fact that your control box is laying flat, how big would the nadir footprint be??

Also, the main reason for buying the VR Drive II was, it looks like it was designed from the ground up as a true motorised pano head. Where as yours appears to be a hand use product mounted on top of a motorised control, like an after thought, but there again it also makes good design sense so perhaps a good idea..

Destiny...

Last edited by Destiny on Thu May 17, 2012 9:45 am, edited 1 time in total.

The MK PanoMachine can not only shoot the same number of shots in each row, no, there's more. The device automatically calculates the sphere, the required rows and optimized number of shots in each row.

Supports the Promote Control, automatic bracketing for up to 45 shots in each row, up to 9.0 EV steps between bracked exposures to create 32-bit HDR images under even the worst lighting conditions.

Horizontally a stepping motor with belt drive. This is unique.

A new feature is the removable control unit - so you can control in your hand when you make pole panoramas.

From the new v. 8 footprint, I have no picture jet. The first units have been delivered to Australia / Singapore / Thailand and we have delivery time within 4 weeks. The whole unit rotates, so the footprint is small. But I'll take a picture soon.

We offer an excellent customer support.That should be obvious, it is often not.

Hi.. Yes, the MK PanoMachine 8.0 does seem to have some great features.

I guessed that the head might be duel use, motor and hand.. We also have the Nodal Ninja for the hand made pano's.. I still love my NN4 even though we mostly use our VR Drive II, its a really well made beautiful product and the customer service from Bill Bailey of Nodal Ninja is world class.. Its good to hear your customer service is considered excellent too.. In our book its the No.1 feature...

We live in Australia but I come from Thailand so its good your product are being sold in my home country too.... We Thai people love German made stuff, well most of it.. LOL.. But Swish made is also world class gear, and personally we love it more.....

The auto calculation feature is a must.. The VR Drive II has this feature too.. It has many great features and its easy to upgrade and program. RoundShot provide a thumb drive to make it easy to update their firmware. I guess if the VR Drive had never been made, then I guess we might have considered the MK PanoMachine 8.0. But if we were rich, we would buy the other Seitz products.. like the 6 X 17 160 million pixels in 1 second.. )))) I would looooove to play with this beautiful camera.... World class photography equipment for sure. I guess its the fact that since Seitz/Roundshot make such incredible equipment including the D3, we assumed that the same quality of technology and attention to detail must be built into their VR Drive II.. But like I said before, even though we chose the VR Drive II in the end, we will would have liked to have given the MK PanoMachine 8 a test run.. We agree, there are only really 3 serious mortised pano heads in this price range to choose from, all of which have good and bad points... In the end with this type of motorised pano head, it will come down to personal choice since they are all very fine products.

Destiny..

Last edited by Destiny on Thu May 17, 2012 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.

Actually Andrew, I really want to try this feature on my VR Drive.. I had to stitch a very big featureless ceiling the other week.. This feature would have been great.. I need get advice on how to use it with my VR Drive.... I noticed its available on the data..

Destiny...

mediavets wrote:Marc,

Is there any plan to support the Papywizard-compliant XML data file to record shooting positions to assist the Autopano Pro/Giga stitching software in placement of 'featureless' images?

First I worked for Noblex, Dresden (Germany).Then I sold many years Seitz ROUNDSHOT products, in the development for the first VR-Drive, I was involved. Afterwards I sold the Clauss head, was one of the the first panoramic tripod heads with motorized Y-axis.In 2007 the first MK PanoMachine came on the market.With an own product, you can realize your dreams.

We are very flexible, and fast in development - especially in the firmware and the drive.I stand 100% behind the product, with much love and passion.

New are our MK Wave wooden tripods, just very popular in Asia.It is art, makes a lot of fun and 100% made â€‹â€‹in Germany.

Hi Andrews:

Yes, we are working on XML data files already.

Have a nice day

Marc

Last edited by PanoMachine on Thu May 17, 2012 12:03 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Hi Marc.. Why did you sell the Clauss Head.. I thought that was a very fine motorised head.. I guess with your pass knowledge in the development of the motorised heads you would know all there is to know..

To be honest, we were going to buy the MK normal VR held pano head.. We liked it better than the NN3 but it all came down to price in the end... and availability... We sent an email asking about the prices and where to buy but never received a response.. it seemed to be hard to buy... Not sure who we sent the email to now, I am sure it was from the main web site.. I guess things have changed since then...

Like I said, the main motorised heads are all very fine so it will come down to personal choice in the end.. I like the clamp-release plate with 2 levels (Arca Swiss compatible) on the MK. But I like the big touch screen on the VR Drive II...

Destiny

Last edited by Destiny on Fri May 18, 2012 1:19 am, edited 1 time in total.

PanoMachine wrote:The MK PanoMachine can not only shoot the same number of shots in each row, no, there's more. The device automatically calculates the sphere, the required rows and optimized number of shots in each row.

Hey Marc!

I guess thatÂ´s a common feature among pano-heads these days.

PanoMachine wrote:Supports the Promote Control, automatic bracketing for up to 45 shots in each row, up to 9.0 EV steps between bracked exposures to create 32-bit HDR images under even the worst lighting conditions.

I mean using the Promote is the most clever way to handle bracketing - itÂ´s very versatile beyond bracketing: programmable focus-stacking for example. Works great.

PanoMachine wrote:A new feature is the removable control unit - so you can control in your hand when you make pole panoramas.

ThatÂ´s an absolutely essential feature - i often use the control-unit of the Panoneed with a 10m cable while the head is on a pole. Radio-control of ALL features is projected. But i prefer cables: theyÂ´re safe and protected against irritations by other controllers (i had an issue on a construction-site several times using radio-controllers).

Did you test the Machine mounted on a HORIZONTAL pole? Does the belt-drive keep absolute precision?

Last week i needed to move the camera/head about a meter beyond the rim of a building on a horizontal pole. I used a Nikon D3x - quite heavy with the Nikon 1,4/35mm. So the cameraÂ´s main-rotation was vertically instead of horizontally and the footprint was on one side. This mounting produces a strong lever-force to the usually horizontal moving motor and gear. It took the 4Nm-mode to do it - i can switch the head between 1 and 4 Nm for horizontal AND vertical. Usually itÂ´s needed only for vertikal movement with very heavy lenses - while horizontal moving is easy.

best, Klaus

Last edited by klausesser on Thu May 17, 2012 2:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Our new control unit with display is connected by a cable.An IR remote control is also included.With an optional wireless remote release you can also start the unit.

The MK PanoMachine can be used horizontally or upside down.The stepper motor with a belt does not allow the use of 90 °.Your pole panorama was a very special use, we need our drive (crafted belt) for time-lapse photography.

Our Vertical Drive can be used at all angles.

We would have to make a sketch and, if necessary tests with 2 engines.Perheps we have to optimize the drive.So far we have yet no customer request / order.

Hi Marc.. Well, it was my husband John who sent the email to your web site.. It was your web site we sent it to, I remember quite well.. But the pano head we were looking at is no longer on your web site.. it looked a lot like your MK Panohead 3 but with a red base part.... It looked really cool.. I am sure I made mention to it on this forum when we were looking at buying a pano head about two years ago.. At the time we really regretted buying the Nodal Ninja 3 and wised we had bought the MK since we had a few issue with our NN3.. But then Bill Bailey got involved and it was found that our NN3 had a part missing and was out of date a bit... So Bill made it all good by replacing the entire unit with the brand new NN4 and all the goodies that came with it.. Bill Baileys customer support is Word-Class.. Never had better, he looked after us way beyond he had too, and he has provided support to others too going way beyond what he had to. Since we have had our Nodal Ninja 4 pano head Bill has made a few more very fine pano heads. Nodal Ninja make outstanding products at a very affordable price.. The finish is excellent. Your MK 3 looks very fine too, I really like it..

Not sure why our email went unanswered.. If you would like me to send a test email I will do that for you.

Looking at your web site, as I said really like your MK Panohead 3, it looks great and it looks like its this which is mounted on your control box.. Its all that motorised stuff and the controller I do not like, sorry.. But now I understand from above, its great feature to be able to separate and use your motorised head on pole. I can see this would appeal to many people. The things we really love about the VR Drive is the very big touch controller screen, its mounted upright too so the nadir footprint is very fixable and we love Y motor fitted to the side which looks so well made and strong.. Its all very neat and tidy in our eyes.. Really easy to use too.. To be honest, I was scared to turn it on.. I knew nothing about this kind of thing. But the more I played with it the more comfortable I was with it.. Urs from Roundshot has been amazing and very tolerant of my silly questions. Urs has been very much like Bill Bailey, providing support and other goodie things way beyond our expectations. If I have an issue, I will email him in the evening and I mostly receive a response within an hour. Their support is also Word-Class..

I hope one day I get to test out your new MK PanoMachine 8.0. I am sure it will work very well. I would also very much love to play with the Clauss pano head but I guess thats beginning to get a bit too expensive, but a very fine looking pano head.. Its great to capture a pano so quickly but it comes at a price.. I have chatted to the guys at LizardQ quite often, even though there is no way I could ever afford to buy their pano head as they know, they are aways so helpful and have given me so much advice and support. We would love to have our own shop with all these wonderful products in. I would call it "The 360 Owl".. Someone very special to me gave me the tip that an Owl can turn their head 360 degrees..

Destiny

PanoMachine wrote:Hi:

We have sold before 2007 exclusive the Clauss devices.

If we get an e-mail, we will answer to 100%. I do not know why you did not get an offer! We ship worldwide from Germany, quickly by Post / DHL or inside Europe via GLS.

Our MK PanoMachine is now available in a new, compact housing with a separate control unit - ideal to create object movies and pole panoramas- as well as classical with an integrated control. The included stitching software (PC or Mac) enables multi-row and full spherical 360x180 degree panoramas, even the export of interactive 3D panoramas for iPhone / iPad.

New Sphere Mode, you can set the starting position (vertical drive) from the top, bottom or center, horizontal rotation clockwise or counter clockwise, with stop-and-shoot or continuous.

And furthermore, our MK Wave tripods are deliberately different, like no other. Wooden tripods in a new design - high quality finish. Handcrafted 100% in Germany.